


FTFY

by BittersweetMeph



Category: Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (TV 2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe, IT AU, M/M, Mild Language, grumpy irish comeo
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-09
Updated: 2017-03-09
Packaged: 2018-10-01 06:42:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,104
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10183157
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BittersweetMeph/pseuds/BittersweetMeph
Summary: Todd works in a company. Dirk also works at that company.They didn't actually know they worked at the same company until one day when Todd's computer broke.Everything is connected...now.





	

**Author's Note:**

> FTFY is an acronym (Fixed That For You) used on the internet, sometimes genuinely and sometimes with sarcasm. How exactly did I use it? You'll see (;
> 
> Disclaimer: Amanda has pararibulitis, Todd doesn't. He didn't lie about being ill and there was no incident as in canon.

It was a tough morning. Todd was not pleased by it at all.

It started with an alarm.  
Oh, wait, it fucking didn’t because the damn thing didn’t work.  
Todd realized something was wrong when he woke up and noticed how far up the sun was already.  
He grabbed his phone. Shit. Fuck. His workday started twenty minutes ago.  
The breakfast was not an option. Todd snatched his jeans off the chair and then pulled out a t-shirt from the closet.  
Even if he get to the subway in seven minutes and then run to the office in three, there’s still would be twenty minutes trip on the train itself. Add five to ten minutes waiting for the elevator and then going up to the 42nd floor (thanks, Canada, for your skyscrapers) and you have forty minutes delay. Plus twenty minutes he was asleep. A hour.

So, the day was off to a bad start.  
But the Universe is a bitch (direct quote from Todd) and it decided to make that day even worse. Or better, if you think about it in a long run.

Todd managed to sneak up to his workplace without being noticed by his boss. When he sat down and looked around he saw his colleague Farah watching him. 

“Hi”, he squeezed out a smile.  
Farah politely smiled back and returned to what she was doing.  
Todd thought everything was settled down. Silly Todd.

 

“What the hell”, Brotzman muttered as he was trying to log into his computer for the third time. “Hey, Farah, is your internet working?”, he asked as he inclined towards her.  
“Yeah, everything’s fine”, she looked a bit confused.  
As she watched him struggle for a few more minutes she suggested: “You should call our IT department”  
“No, no, it’s okay, I’ve got this”, he said almost convincingly.

He did not get this.

Another five minutes later Todd was dialling the number.

“Hello, IT, have you tried turning it off and on again?”, said grumpy Irish voice.  
“I...yeah. I restarted my computer but I still can’t log into it. I think there’s something with the internet.”  
“Okay, we’ll send you someone”, it didn’t sound like they would send someone.  
“Thanks. I’m Todd Brotzman, by the way!”, Todd managed to say before the IT-guy hang up.

To Todd’s surprise someone did come.  
Brotzman was mindlessly ruffling up the papers on his table when a person approached him.  
“Hi-i-i-i-i”  
Oh God.  
Todd turned in his chair and eyed up the man who just greeted him. Brotzman was already furrowing his eyebrows and the view only add up to his puzzlement.  
“I’m from IT. My name is Dirk”, the man, oh, Dirk, was smiling widely. He had a tag on his yellow and, what the hell, is it leather, jacket which said “Hi, my name is: DIRK”, the first part was printed and the second was written with a pen.

“Uhm…Hi”, Todd was still a bit confused from the meeting.  
“May I have a look at your computer?”,weirdly enough Dirk’s British accent didn’t make him look arrogant. Quite the opposite, he seemed polite.  
“Yeah, sure”, Todd stood up from his chair for Dirk to sit in it.

At first Dirk restarted the computer and made Todd put in his login and password again. 

Then Dirk restarted computer again. 

Todd started to think Dirk didn’t know what the problem was.

“Alright, I think I have to inspect the system block”, Dirk suddenly stood up pushing the chair back and went down on his knees.  
There was a row of “Hmm”s, “Interesting”s and “Oohh”s coming from under the table. Todd shifted his weight from one foot to another and looked around him instead of staring at Dirk’s bum that was poking out rather uhmm… distractingly. 

“Aha!” Dirk suddenly exclaimed.  
Todd breathed out with relief but he still wasn’t convinced the problem was solved.

“Your internet cable was out, but now…,” Dirk plugged the said cable back into its place. “Everything is connected”

Todd quickly typed in his login and password and, holy shit, it worked.  
“Ah, thanks, Dirk,” said Todd with a smile to the man who was raising up to his fit, finally. 

Dirk smiled at him.  
“Call if you ever need me again”

***

The day was beginning to get better. Brotzman convinced his boss he wasn’t late and him not being online in their local network was due to the connection issues.  
Todd was finishing his lunch and he was about to throw his paper cup in the bin in their dining area when he overheard a conversation.

“And did you see Dirk today?”  
“No, but I heard! Ugh, I can’t believe they still keep him”  
“Yeah! I mean, what’s the point of him? He doesn’t have the proper education and he’s just…I don’t know. Weird. Why did they hire him anyway?”  
“I have no idea. I think those guys don’t want to lift up their lazy asses and Dirk runs around for them. The guy’s like an excited small dog like corgi or something”  
“Haha, you’re right”

Todd didn’t share the opinion of his colleagues but he didn’t exactly want to confront anyone. 

But remember that the Universe is a bitch? Yep.

“And he’s so awkward and weird. I think he might be autistic”

That was fucking it for Todd.  
He was almost exiting the dining area and then one of his colleagues said it and he didn’t have it in him to just go away.

“I’m sorry?” it sounded more like a question rather than a start of a shitstorm. “I accidentally heard what you said and… that’s not a polite thing to say,” it didn’t sound as harsh as he wanted to. “ You assumed someone has a mental illness by looking at them. And I don’t think you have a medical education so this is… wrong,” Todd furrowed his eyebrows as if in disbelief he had to explain something like that.  
“So you think he’s just a normal guy? Because he’s clearly not”  
“Who cares?!” Todd was starting to lose his temper. “He does his job, he helps people and you judge him by how he looks or what he says”, Todd knew it was quite vague so he added: “I think Dirk is okay. At least someone tries to do their job here,” and with that Brotzman left his colleagues.

Did he know it wouldn’t make him look friendly? Yes.  
Was his reputation already odd? Yes.  
Would he do something like that again? Definitely.

 

Other than that the rest of the day was mostly uneventful.  
When Farah asked him if he was going home Todd quickly got up while shutting down his computer.  
With time they’d developed this tradition of going down in the elevator together. It was a mutually beneficial and strategically successful tradition. If there was no one else in the elevator then they had a small talk about work and then said goodbye to each other on the first floor. If there were other people in the elevator then Todd and Farah would seem to be involved in their own conversation so no one would talk to them.  
That time they were surprisingly alone which didn’t happen that often.

After two or three floors Farah turned to him and suddenly started not a small talk but quite a big one.  
“I heard you defended Dirk today”  
“Um…yeah. Those…” he searched for a friendly and polite word, “…people… They were total jerks”  
Farah sighed and nodded.  
“Unfortunately, that won’t help,” she said. “They discuss everyone and they continue to be jerks even when you point it out to them”

Todd blinked a few times. “Everyone? You mean… even me?”  
“You’re a part of this company”, Farah said as a matter of fact.  
“And what did they say?”  
She looked at him and smiled breathing out some air.  
“Todd. You know I don’t like spreading hate and rumours. It won’t do anything good. Just. Don’t be surprised if this people don’t change”  
And with that Farah exited the elevator that had stopped on the first floor.

***

Brotzman’s apartment was quiet. Usually. Today the neighbours decided that drilling their wall at eight p.m. was a good idea. It was not.  
Todd groaned, grabbed his phone and went for a walk.

“How’s work?”, asked Amanda, his sister, instead of greeting him.  
“It’s fine,” he sighed.  
“You sure?” her voice showed a tiny hint of real concern.  
“Mostly, yeah. I just…” he lingered. It wasn’t like he had nothing to say, quite the opposite. It was just the fact that the only thing he remembered at that moment was his argument with the colleagues. And Dirk.  
“Todd?”  
“Yeah, yeah, I’m here,” Todd found himself in the nearest park and sat on the bench. Bench let out a squeak. If this bench had the ability to speak it would probably be swearing at the moment.  
“I…sort of defended someone today. It wasn’t really intentional. But those two people called our IT-guy autistic and weird and I couldn’t… you know. I couldn’t let that pass”  
“People can be jerks,” Amanda sounded like she was rolling in bed. She didn’t sound upset. She didn’t sound angry. The days of her being bullied at school were long gone. She was no longer affected by those people.  
But Todd knew. He saw, he heard. Amanda remembered every single thing people said about her illness. She remembered every “freak” and every “weirdo”. She remembered every “Get away from me” and every “You should be in the hospital. You know, for the crazy ones”. But although she remembered it, she didn’t let those memories affect her. She moved on. She learned to live with her illness. And Todd admired her greatly for that.

“Maybe you’ll be his guardian,” Amanda continued. “And then you’ll be super cool friends,” Amanda went on describing this hypothetical  
***

Apparently Todd’s life had decided to change and turn completely upside down.  
It wasn’t even two full days since he saw Dirk for the first time and now he saw him again. In the bathroom. Bleeding.  
“Oh my God!” Todd rushed to Dirk who stood by the sink. “What happened? Are you okay?”  
“Yes, Todd, I’m okay”, Dirk did not sound okay. He sound upset and even somewhat angry.  
Todd looked at Dirk’s cheek with blood oozing out of it and grabbed a few paper towels from the towel dispenser.  
“Here, let me help you”, he wet the towels and almost shoved them into Dirk’s hand.  
Dirk lingered for a moment but accepted the lump of wetness which he used to rub away liquid redness. 

“Did someone…do that to you?”, Todd asked carefully.  
“No!” answered Dirk quickly and quite unquietly. “No. I fell,” he continued to stare in the mirror.

Brotzman was having none of it.  
“Dirk?” he moved closer. “Are you being bullied?”  
The bleeding man turned to him with a gawky smile but Todd could’ve sworn he saw the nervous twitch before that.  
“Oh, Todd, don’t be silly! Bullying is for kids and we’re grown-ups,” he raised his eyebrows demonstratively. 

Brotzman was unperturbed.  
“How did you hurt your cheek, Dirk?”  
The smile fainted a little.  
“I told you,” Dirk turned to the mirror again. “I fell”  
“Because someone pushed you?”  
Dirk threw the wet and now blood-stained towels in the sink.  
“Why do you care?”  
And there was so much hurt behind this words Todd didn’t know how to react at first. It was “why do you care?” from a person who suffered. Who was betrayed or left. Who opened up to people and they used his trust. It was “why do you care?” from someone who was already ready to see you leave.  
“I…” Todd stuttered.  
Dirk calmed down already, obviously regretting saying what he said.  
“Sorry, Todd. I shouldn’t have…” Dirk threw the towels in the bin and turned off the tap.  
Brotzman startled.  
“No. Wait here. Okay?” Todd ran out of the bathroom.  
He came back three minutes later.  
With a band-aid.  
A pink band-aid.  
“Sorry, I didn’t have any other colour,” said Todd shyly.  
“Oh, but it’s okay. I like pink. Pink is pretty,” reassured him Dirk.

Todd opened the package and raised the band-aid silently asking Dirk if he could put the sticky thing on his face. Dirk moved closer in response and turned his cheek.

“Thanks,” said Dirk quietly when the pink stripe was stuck to his face.

Todd lowered his hands and smiled. “Sure”  
And just as they were about to part ways he added: “Call if you need me again.”


End file.
